New City Sidewalk Program

In August of 2007, the Public Works Department developed an annual program to foster new sidewalk construction along streets in the city where none exist. The program was intended to coordinate the identification of areas in need, create a selection process and identify funding sources for the design and construction of these projects each year. At that time, the Board of Commissioners approved $400,000 annually to fund a sidewalk program intended to foster enhancement of a "walkable" city. Since 2007, the Public Works Department has provided oversight of the program, designed the majority of the projects in-house, and provided construction management service.

The identification of potential candidate projects is via requests submitted through normal service request channels, through Neighborhood and Community Services, to Public Works. At the start of each fiscal year, staff evaluates candidate projects against a set of criteria to prioritize them into a sequence for design and construction. Small projects may be designed and constructed in the same fiscal year. Large projects may unfold over successive fiscal years. The ranking criteria is explained further in the City's Sidewalk Program Policy but is broken into five primary categories: Proximity, Financial Feasibility, Constructability, Connectivity, and Walkability. Ranking analysis is performed annually and the rank of any given candidate may be impacted by the addition of new requests to the cue, location of constructed sidewalk projects and other factors. Therefore, rank does not guarantee order of construction. Although both sides of the street are evaluated, sidewalks are only constructed on one side.

The program is structured in a way to keep citizens aware of any proposed projects in their area and details with respect to those projects. Feedback is critical to our design process and our desire is to gain feedback and support from all affected property owners as early in the process as possible. The policy outlines the various ways staff reaches out to the adjacent property owners (through mailings and public meetings) to gain feedback and provide project details.

We have included the complete Sidewalk Program Policy, projected project listing for the upcoming fiscal year, and a link to current sidewalk construction projects. Additionally, the following locations have been approved for funding but are currently either in the public outreach or design phase and thus not yet under construction: